Satanic Temple headquarters to open quietly in Salem

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Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;View Shout History

When The Satanic Temple officially opens its doors on Friday, Salem will become home to the organization’s international headquarters.

But pitchfork-wielding mobs protesting the move seem unlikely, as the fire-and-brimstone theology of the Puritans who once populated the city has given way to a “live and let live” attitude in present day Salem.

Less than a mile from Gallows Hill — the notorious spot where villagers executed more than a dozen people accused of witchcraft in the 1690s — an 1882 Victorian on Bridge Street will serve as The Satanic Temple’s first physical headquarters, said Lucien Greaves, the temple’s spokesman.

“The history of Salem is also part of the history of Satanism,” Greaves said. “I feel that [Salem] is a very appropriate place for this” temple.

The Satanic Temple building, which is zoned as an art gallery, will open to the public with art installations, lectures, and film screenings, said Greaves, a Cambridge resident.

Dating back centuries, Satanism has been misunderstood by wide swaths of American society, Greaves said. Satanists do not worship an Antichrist, or any other deity. Rather, Satanism preaches independent thought and using evidence-based science as a basis for understanding the world, and views Satan as a literary figure representing an eternal struggle against authoritarianism.

The Satanic Temple currently has about 40,000 members nationwide, Greaves said. Chapters have engaged in a number of campaigns supporting causes such as separation of church and state and free speech.

Members caused controversy in Oklahoma City when they unsuccessfully lobbied for a bronze statue of Baphomet — a winged figure with the head of a goat and body of a human — to be displayed next to a Ten Commandments monument on state capitol grounds. The Ten Commandments statue was removed after the state Supreme Court last year ruled a religious sculpture cannot be displayed on government property.

So far, residents and business owners in Salem seem at ease with adding Satanists to the Witch City’s mixed bag of Wiccans, warlocks, and an array of faiths outside the mainstream.

“We’ve received a total of four phone calls” about the temple, Salem Mayor Kimberley Driscoll’s chief of staff, Dominick Pangallo, said Monday. “They were just expressing concerns or objections.”

The one issue the city is looking into is whether the temple will operate as a place of assembly in addition to a museum because of possible zoning issues, Pangallo said.

Until last week, Robert Liani Jr., who owns the Coffee Time Bake Shop down the street, had no idea that The Satanic Temple was moving into the building that last housed an insurance brokerage and previously was a longtime funeral home.

Liani, who organizes a community pride landscaping competition among business owners in the area, said he doubts the temple will face much backlash.

“It wouldn’t be my favorite thing to put there,” Liani said. “It was a little surprising, but I guess we’re waiting to see what kind of art they show there.”

With newly installed steel bars on the windows and security cameras in place to protect against vandalism, The Satanic Temple will be open during October, when approximately 250,000 tourists visit Salem during the Halloween season, according to Destination Salem.

Rather than worrying about public reception, Greaves hopes the influx of tourists will result in a high volume of temple visitors, he said. As for locals, anyone with doubts or fears will likely come around in time.

“We’re not going to be going door to door proselytizing,” Greaves said. “We don’t want to cause any controversy in the community in Salem.”

SEATTLE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BEING FORCED TO ALLOW ‘AFTER SCHOOL SATAN CLUB’ TO OPERATE ON CAMPUSThe temple's application proposes renting space at Centennial for about an hour after school one day a month during the school year. "This is going to be infectious and widespread," said Mike Cheek, who has grandchildren in the district. "I know that if there is anything to do with Satan, it is dark and it is evil."

LAWYER: AFTER SCHOOL SATAN CLUB MUST BE ALLOWED TO PROCEED“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” Ephesians 5:11 (KJV)

MOUNT VERNON — A so-called “After School Satan Club” proposed by the Satanic Temple of Seattle to be held at Centennial Elementary School should be allowed to proceed, an attorney hired to represent the Mount Vernon School District said.

“I think that if the school district denied that application, you would face costly litigation that would be distracting from your mission,” said Duncan Fobes of the Seattle-based law firm Patterson, Buchanan, Fobes and Leitch during a Wednesday meeting of the Mount Vernon School Board. “And would ultimately be unsuccessful.”

AN AFTER SCHOOL SATAN CLUB IS COMING TO YOUR KID’S ELEMENTARY SCHOOL:

FOBES WAS HIRED BY THE DISTRICT’S RISK-POOL INSURANCE GROUP TO ASSESS WHETHER THE DISTRICT HAD LEGAL STANDING TO DENY THE TEMPLE’S APPLICATION.“We believe that it’s clear that, because the district has a policy and procedure that encourages the use of community groups to use your facilities, because you do that, you must open it to this group,” Fobes said. “You don’t have to sponsor the group, you don’t have to help the group.”

A 2001 Supreme Court ruling, Good News Bible Club vs. Milford Central School District, stated that if schools allow any organization to use school property, they must allow all organizations — religious and secular — to have access.

The Mount Vernon district is one of nine throughout the country that has been chosen by the Satanic Temple to host a pilot After School Satan Club program because the districts also host a Good News Bible Club, which is run by the Child Evangelism Fellowship.

“We didn’t invite them to the school, they put our name on a website,” Centennial Principal Erwin Stroosma said. “We feel like we’re pawns in a game — someone else is manipulating us.”

THE TEMPLE’S APPLICATION PROPOSES RENTING SPACE AT CENTENNIAL FOR ABOUT AN HOUR AFTER SCHOOL ONE DAY A MONTH DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR.“This is going to be infectious and widespread,” said Mike Cheek, who has grandchildren in the district. “I know that if there is anything to do with Satan, it is dark and it is evil.” When asked by a parent to raise their hands if they didn’t want the After School Satan Club to take root at Centennial, nearly every community member in attendance did so.

OTHER PARENTS WERE LESS CONCERNED.“It feels like we’re all reacting with fear,” said Melissa McPhaden. “I’m not afraid of what this church can do, because I have a relationship with my children.” The temple claims to worship no deity, but previously told the Skagit Valley Herald it uses Satan “as a metaphor for fighting religious tyranny and oppression.”

“I think the reason the (temple) is here is because they wanted a reaction,” McPhaden said. “And they got the reaction. I don’t think they want to start a Satanic club in Mount Vernon.”

A representative from the Satanic Temple of Seattle did not return calls Thursday by the Skagit Valley Herald.

Fobes said the district has the right to review the proposed curriculum for the club, but it cannot prohibit the club from school property unless that curriculum uses hate speech, incites violence or includes pornography.

“What this group purports is they support rational thinking activities,” Fobes said. “I don’t know what they actually do because no one’s done it yet. This is a pretty new undertaking by this group.”

“And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.” Revelation 16:10,11 (KJV)

The district cannot ban all after-school groups in an effort to keep the temple out, Fobes said, and even if it could, doing so would likely open it up to lawsuits. “I think it’s not an option here,” Fobes said. “I believe in this particular case you would still face some litigation, not only from the Satanic Temple, but also from the Good News club.”

The district would also lose out on whatever revenue is generated by allowing groups to use its facilities.

“Very unfortunately, our hands are tied in this question,” Board President Rob Coffey said. “We must make our facilities available — and in many cases we are eager to make them available — to Boys & Girls Clubs, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts. We must make them available whether we like the group or not. There really is no opportunity for us to say no to the Satanic Temple or the After School Satan Club.”

Superintendent Carl Bruner said Thursday he intends to meet again with Fobes. source

Minnesota City to Allow ‘Non-Theistic’ Satanic Temple to Place Monument in Veterans Park

Officials in a Minnesota city have agreed to allow the Satanic Temple, which does not believe in a literal Satan, to erect a monument in its Veterans Park after the group applied for inclusion now that a “limited public forum” has been created in the park to allow the presence of a cross grave marker that upset atheists.

“It was discussed during our city council meeting when we authored the policy that groups that were unpopular or otherwise would put monuments in the park,” Belle Plaine City Administrator Michael Votca acknowledged to the Washington Post.

As previously reported, the situation began last year after the Belle Plaine Veterans Club placed a memorial in the park that featured a soldier kneeling before a cross tombstone, such as are seen in some military cemeteries. The display was erected next to an inscribed stone honoring local residents who had lost their lives in various wars, from the Indian War of 1862 to the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) contended that the inclusion of the cross in the display promoted Christianity and failed to represent other religions or those who reject religion. It contended that even though the purpose of the display was not meant to be religious, the cross grave marker made it so, and asked that the symbol be removed since its placement on city property could be construed as government endorsement.

City council met over the matter in January, and members of the Belle Plaine Veterans Club reluctantly agreed to cut the cross off the display. But as the move greatly disturbed area residents, city council members voted in February to create a “limited public forum/free speech zone” in Veterans Park to solve the issue.

“[The limited public forum] ensures that there is no endorsement of religion by the city whatsoever because the memorials that will be put up represent the citizens that put them up,” Alliance Defending Freedom’s (ADF) Doug Wardlow explained.

The grave marker was then welded back onto the monument and returned to the park.

However, seeing an opportunity, the Satanic Temple soon applied to have its monument placed in the park, and city officials said they had to allow it because of the forum status.The display is described as a “black steel cube with embossed inverted pentagrams with inlaid gold on four sides. An inverted helmet rests on the top of the cube. A plaque on one side of the cube reads: ‘In honor of Belle Plaine veterans who fought to defend the United States and its Constitution.’”

“It’s certainly better to preserve the First Amendment than to preserve your notions of religious supremacy on public grounds. That’s certainly not what America was founded on and certainly not what our soldiers fought for,” Satanic Temple leader Doug Mesner, who goes by the name Lucien Greaves, told the Star Tribune.

As previously reported, the Satanic Temple launched a nationwide targeted effort last year to spawn “After School Satan” clubs in elementary schools that allow Child Evangelism Fellowship’s Good News clubs.

The organization likewise sought to place Satanic literature in schools in Delta County, Colorado in 2016 after it took issue with a Bible distribution by Gideon International. It attempted to do the same in Florida in 2014 when a Christian ministry made Bibles available to high school students on “Religious Freedom Day.”

The Satanic Temple similarly launched an effort to erect an homage to Satan on the grounds of the Oklahoma capitol building in 2013 after the ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging the presence of a Ten Commandments monument at the location.

According to its website, the “non-theistic” Satanic Temple does not believe in Satan at all, but only views the devil as a metaphor and a “symbol of the eternal rebel.” Some consider the group as essentially an atheist effort to make a point about religion.

“[W]e do not promote a belief in a personal Satan,” its FAQ section explains. “To embrace the name Satan is to embrace rational inquiry removed from supernaturalism and archaic tradition-based superstitions.”

In a move that both attracted and scared away attendees from a Colorado council meeting, a Satanist delivered the invocation Wednesday. Those opposed gathered outside while Andrew Vodopich became the first Satanist in the state to deliver the prayer.

Representing the Western Colorado Atheists and Freethinkers, Vodopich delivered the invocation at the Grand Junction City Council meeting. The one minute prayer would have failed to raise an eyebrow had it not been for a “Hail Satan” tacked to the end.

Video from the meeting shows council members standing as he delivers his words. At the end, an attendee can be heard saying “Yeah, what he said.”

Speaking to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, Vodopich said he was “pleasantly surprised at the reception.”

He said he was expecting something similar to a Satanic invocation in Pensacola last year, when the prayer was met with raised hands brandishing bibles and praying.

Despite the calm inside the meeting, outside, opposition was present. ”We didn’t feel like it was right to disrupt,” Mackenzie Dodge told the Sentinel. “That’s not what we’re here for… We wanted to lift up the Lord’s name high and cast out what’s not for Him.”

Dodge had taken to Facebook to arrange a prayer gathering to coincide with Wednesday’s invocation. “While we do not argue anyone's right to do this, we will not sit silently by without raising our Lord's name is support of our community,” she said.

READ MORE: Satanic Temple rejected by Phoenix gets OK from Scottsdale

Vodopich was the first Satanist to deliver the invocation in Colorado. Several states have allowed non-Christian groups to partake in the tradition, citing the right to free speech in their defence.

In January, a Satanic Temple in Arizona was rejected in Phoenix after being chosen to deliver the invocation